SugarCOAT

54. Emotions 🥹

I can't believe it's already Wednesday and so much has happened. Just two more days before my first televised performance. Once I was able to get a break from rehearsals, I called Monica to give her all the details. Being the petty investigator that she is, she suggested that I ignore Aja Frost for the way she deceived me.

"And you still need to move out of that house!" Monica barked.

I quickly blinked my eyes. "Ma'am, where is all this attitude coming from?"

Monica took a deep breath. "You remember the YouTuber I was talking to?"

"Yeah."

"It's not gonna work out. So, I won't be flying to Atlanta, anymore."

I grinned, "Does that mean you can fly out to me, and--"

"No! You need to come back home. Actually, you need to do a music video for your new song so I can do a reaction, because you bring in a pretty penny for ya girl," she joked.

"Monica, I am over here trying to figure out how I'm going to make it through this live performance on Friday."

"Oh, yeah! I'm going to react to that, too. Are you going to wear that same silver wig or something else?"

Welp, I've lost her! I ended the call with my cousin and ate a light snack before finishing up my rehearsals. Just when I thought I was going to walk out the building and jump in the car with Maximo, I ran into Aja Frost.

"Jae, my love!" She ran and hugged me.

"Aja," I cringed.

She released me. "Where are you headed? Do you have time to talk?"

We went to the office on the 18th floor, sitting in our familiar chairs. I could only imagine what Aja has to tell me.

"I gathered up the courage to talk to Ricky yesterday, and I wished I'd done it sooner. He's been doing everything he can to make sure the video disappears. He told me that there's still a chance that I can do the Super Bowl commercial and get some of my sponsors back."

"That's good, Aja. I'm happy for you." I looked at the time on my phone.

Aja continued, "Without even asking, he told me about the hacker that you told me you heard about. Well, she's one of his exes. She used to work for him and Anaya. In so many words, he was thinking that Anaya hired her to deaden his career. It's a theory, but I don't doubt it. Anaya would love to be the CEO and President of RiSe Records."

Hmm... if these puzzle pieces were starting to make a picture, would it make sense that the hacker is Jaylei or Jaylei was working with the hacker?

Aja added, "Then when Ricky was about to give me more information, Anaya came barging in his office. I ended up leaving. As I was walking past the receptionist's desk, she was looking at me strangely while texting on her phone. So I went over to her and asked for a pen and a sheet of paper. When she put her phone down, I saw that she had sent a text to Anaya."

I asked, "Ricky's receptionist was texting Anaya?"

Aja chuckled, "Yes, yes, yes! So I became desperate. I was like 'I don't have time to write this schedule out.' Then, I asked her if she could print out a copy of my schedule for tomorrow. When she got up and walked over to the printer, I took a picture of her phone. Take a look at this." Aja passed me her phone.

On the screen was a photo of the receptionist's phone. The texts were between Anaya and the receptionists.

- Aja's been in Ricky's office for more than 15 minutes.

- I'm on my way. 

- She's leaving the office now.

I bucked my eyes, "His receptionist was telling on him."